HDMS Peder Skram caused considerable international attention

The frigate was launched and named by King Frederik IX, 20
May 1965.

The Frigate is designed by a Danish project group from the Navy
and built at the then Helsingør Shipyard and Machine Builder A/S as
new-building no. 370. The Frigate had its name approved by royal
resolution dated January 15th 1964. The keel was laid on
September 25th 1964 and it was launched and named by
King Frederik IX on May 20th 1965. The Frigate was
commissioned and accepted into the Navy on May 25th
1966. It was fully financed by the US as a part of the then Weapons
Aid Program.

Before the project was agreed on, the Navy had considered
various types of design. Originally, the two units of the type had
been classified as destroyers as their size and armament
corresponded to the destroyers of that time. However, a less
offensive designation was decided upon - frigate.

For Helsingør Shipyard the construction had far-reaching effects
- economic as well as technical. The shipyard in cooperation with
the Navy and the main sub-contractors solved some extraordinarily
complicated problems. Unfortunately, the shipyard used the same
high quality requirements when afterwards building conventional
merchant vessels, thus resulting in the price level being
unacceptably high. That combined with the competition from foreign
yards in 1983 caused the shipyard to go bankrupt.

When launched HDMS Peder Skram caused considerable international
attention by being the first warship featuring combined gas turbine
and diesel machinery as well as pitch control propellers. That is
why one of the first voyages was a visit to the United States to
present itself.